The Crown Estate has been charging the RNLI more than £60,000 a year to launch its own lifeboats, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
The news comes despite a U-turn last year by the Duchy of Cornwall, the historic estate set up in 1337 and now owned by Prince William, which waived the rents on six RNLI stations, along with school playing fields and village halls, amid public outcry over royal finances. More than £10,000 in rental charges were scrapped.
Now the MoS has learnt that the Crown Estate, which owns more than half of the foreshore and much of the seabed around our coastline, is still charging the RNLI rent for 43 lifeboat stations and other facilities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with the payments totalling £63,000 per year.
Documents reveal that the RNLI pays £31,000 a year for a lifeboat station by Waterloo Bridge in central London – the charity’s busiest station in the country. A lease was signed in 2021, with rental payments increasing with inflation, to allow a floating dock just off the Victoria Embankment.
The RNLI, whose royal patron is the King, said that the majority of its other leases involve payments to the Crown Estate of under £400 per year.
However, the MoS has also learnt that, in 2013, the charity was forced to fork out £110,000 to buy a small area of Crown Estate seabed beneath a new station that was being built at the end of Mumbles Pier near Swansea in Wales.
Despite the outlay, the lifeboat station has been closed for more than three years due to safety concerns over the pier.
The Crown Estate is a public corporation that runs the monarchy’s £16billion land and property portfolio, including virtually all of the seabed around the UK to a perimeter of 12 nautical miles.
King Charles watches the demonstration of a lifeboat launch during his visit to the Walmer RNLI Lifeboat Station in Deal, Kent, in July 2025
The RNLI, whose royal patron is the King, said that the majority of its other leases involve payments to the Crown Estate of under £400 per year
Under the terms of the Sovereign Grant, the King receives 12 per cent of the profits of the Crown Estate to help cover the cost of the Royal Family. The Grant increased by £45.8m to £132.1m in 2025-26
Last night, former minister Norman Baker, an expert on royal finances, said: ‘I think the public would be horrified to learn that the wonderful RNLI, which saves life after life, is being charged in some cases very large sums to undertake their charity work.
‘This should stop immediately. The King of course is patron of the RNLI. He should redouble his efforts to make sure that they have to pay nothing to carry out their charity work – if necessary he should subsidise the rents they are having to pay.’
A spokesperson for the Crown Estate said: ‘Unlike the Duchy of Cornwall, The Crown Estate manages land and seabed on behalf of the nation and is required to generate a return for the public purse, meaning we cannot provide the use of our land or property at a cost to taxpayers.
‘The vast majority of RNLI leases are subject to a nominal rent that covers administrative and legal costs.’
The RNLI said: ‘These arrangements provide the long-term security and access needed to maintain an effective lifesaving service.’
The larger fee for the lifeboat station in central London ‘is in line with market value and is discounted by the Crown Estate due to the RNLI’s charitable status’, the charity added.
Crown Estate Scotland charges the RNLI rent at another 22 locations, with payments averaging £240 per year.
Profits from Crown Estate Scotland, which was established after devolution, do not fund the Royals and is instead passed to the Scottish government.
A spokesperson said: ‘We are required by law to obtain market value and the vast majority of RNLI leases pay rents currently averaging £240 per annum.’
